In the Atacama, you stay at a lovely hotel just outside San Pedro and you have a few days of private guided experiences as described. These include hiking in quieter corners, stargazing and the main sights like the Tatio Geysers and Moon Valley. It's important not to rush your time here. We see so many itineraries giving it just a couple of nights, which is barely enough time to acclimatise and settle in, let alone see its more authentic, local corners. This place is far too special to rush through on a conveyor belt of standardised tours!

Heading across the border into Bolivia, you are with a private driver/guide combo who will be your hosts for the next four nights. They care of everything, from driving to navigating, down to preparing surprisingly gourmet lunches in the absolute middle of nowhere. You stay in fairly simple but very comfortable lodges far from civilisation - there's not always WiFi, but the welcome is always warm, the food surprisingly good and the sense of place absolutely incredible.

From Uyuni, you have a short flight to La Paz, from where you continue your journey across and around sacred Lake Titicaca, again in the company of a lovely private guide. A panoramic train journey takes you across the Peruvian Altiplano to Cusco, the old capital of the Inca empire.

From here, your private guides will immerse you in the sights, sounds and flavours of the Sacred Valley. In exchange for a spirit of adventure and a taste for new experiences, you'll create travel memories to forever bind you to Peru. That might be the sense of achievement you get as you walk to an Inca staging post high above Cusco, or the pride you feel as you track down those pesky lupin seeds your guide challenged you to find in the maze of Urubamba's market stalls. It might be something as simple as the pleasure of putting a name to a smiling local's face, or your first sip of chicha. As in the Atacama, it is critical not to rush through on a two-night stay, treating the valley as an open-air museum to the past, rather than letting you experience its vibrant present, rooted in ancient Inca culture.

The adventure culminates with Machu Picchu, reached on foot via the one-day Inca Trail, arriving in the quiet afternoon and returning for a guided tour the following day.

Added together, it is undoubtedly one of South America's greatest journeys.

You will experience scenery that can rightly be described as truly, utterly epic. Stratovolcanoes tower above shimmering lagoons, crunchy white salt flats stretch as far as the eye can see and geysers hiss jets of steam into crisp air. Flamingos, vicuñas, vizcachas and condors bring the wilderness alive; at night, a blanket of Austral stars spreads across the inky skies. The Altiplano is a world like no other.

Set against this wild backdrop is the rich indigenous culture of its people. The places you stay and the food you eat are authentically, memorably, Andean. In Peru you will meet shepherds, farmers, breadmakers, weavers, reed harvesters and more. You will be immersed in an Inca culture which still dictates the sights, sounds and tastes of the Andes. These introductions transform the places you visit from open-air museums to the past into the vibrant, thriving communities of the present

This trip begins at Santiago de Chile (SCL) and ends at Cusco (CUZ).

The Atacama is generally a year-round destination. Some time around February, the rains can hit, normally for a week or two. This can certainly complicate things but with flexibility, we make sure it's fine - it's when a private guide comes into their own.

The dry season in Bolivia's altiplano is April/May through October. If you come here in February, the salt pans of Uyuni will be covered in several centimetres of water. Although this means your 4×4 won’t be able to access the more remote parts of the salt flats, the mirror-like effect created is astonishing, and creates some of the most incredible photography, as the sky melds into the earth. Note that this month is not a great time for the Peruvian Andes though!

Peru’s size and highly diverse geography result in very variable weather patterns, on a typical trip you can expect to come across a wide range of conditions, so it depends on which areas you will be visiting.

Generally, there is a dry season and a wet season. The best time to visit Peru is during the dry season which is between May and October. You can expect warm sunny days and clear skies with chilly nights in the Andes (Cusco, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu).

The wet season is between November and April, with the wettest months being January and February. The Inca Trail generally closes in February. You can still comfortably travel in November, December as well as late March to April as long as you are prepared for a bit of rain. It is quieter, the scenery is greener, and international flights will cost less.

In the Atacama, the walks are typically in the range of 7-14km though the full Machuca-Rio Grande route is over 20km. You will get the most out of a trip like this if you are happy walking at very least 7km per day. Remember that altitude can make walking in the Atacama more challenging.

In Bolivia, the trip is certainly an adventure but it is mainly vehicle-based with time to explore and take in the surroundings and landscapes. As such it isn't that active. There are many stops along the way and you are out of the vehicle a good deal, but there are no opportunities for full-day hikes, they are more strolls. A lot of this journey is also at altitudes of over 3,500m, so it can feel challenging.

In Peru, we usually include at least a couple of days of hiking, often one taking in ruins and high Andean villages in the Sacred Valley, the other doing the one-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Whilst these are not too strenuous, reasonable fitness is required and the altitude can make you feel more sluggish.

The Royal (one-day) Inca Trail is only 11km in distance, but it is at altitude with some steep uphill sections. The highest point on the walk is 2,800m. We set a gentle pace with lots of breaks over 6–7 hours. If you enjoy hiking and are generally active in day-to-day life, this will be a moderate hike for you.

The hike to Tambo Machay on the day you travel to Cusco takes you to over 4,000m. Again, it is not a long hike (13km), it is largely flat, and we set a slow pace covering the 13km over 6 hours, but you will most likely feel the altitude. It’s a beautiful hike and you should be well acclimatised by this point, but if you don’t want to do it, you can skip it and head straight to Cusco.

Of course, there are always ways to dial up or down the activity level though. For example, if you don't think you'll enjoy the walking enough, we can include the train to Machu Picchu for you, we just need to agree that before you pay your deposit. Please ask if you're not sure.

Always comfortable, though there is a wide variety of accommodation from very simple in the remote regions to fairly premium in the cities. Please simply get in touch to see full details of each hotel.

This trip starts at sea level in Santiago before flying to around 2,400m in the Atacama. From here we gradually build up your activity as you acclimatise, setting you up for a short walk to reach 5,600m at the summit of Toco Volcano. In Bolivia you reach heights of over 5,000m, sleeping at close to this level for the night. In the Peru you are between 2,400 - 3,800m.

It is completely normal to feel a little short of breath and nauseous when you first arrive, as well as a loss of appetite, as your body adapts to the thinner air. This is regardless of age, health and fitness levels and usually passes in 24 hours. Drink lots of water both before and during your time at altitude. Arriving well-hydrated does help.

The focus of this holiday is undoubtedly the landscapes and the wildlife, but spending the days with your local guide will open the door to interacting with the people you meet along the way in the great outdoors.

We take you off the beaten track where nothing is contrived. On your walks in the Andes, you will meet locals usually on their way to the village to buy supplies. You’ll see that colourful woven fabrics really are worn by shepherds in the high mountains. You will meet landowners who lost all their land in the 1960s and had to start again. You will meet villagers who never had anything to lose. You will help out in the kitchen of a local family and eat dinner together.

Absolutely. We can tailor your holiday in any number of ways by including more destinations such as Patagonia to the south or Iguazú to the north. If you want to walk the full Inca Trail, that can be arranged once we've had a chat about it so that you know if it's right for you. If you have already visited Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley, we can instead take you across to Peru's Colca Canyon and Arequipa after Lake Titicaca.